Kroger has one of its fun Mega Events this week where you buy 10 participating items (or items in denominations of 10) you’ll get $0.50 off each item. I only saved 49%, but that’s because I bought some full-price items that I really needed. Here are the matchups that you should take note of:

Campbell’s Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom soups are $0.69 each, and there’s a $0.40/3 printable coupon here that doubles to make them $0.42 each. This is a stock-up price for me as I generally make a chicken and rice casserole once a week using these soups.

Del Monte packaged fruit is $1.69. I used this printable coupon for $0.50/1 Del Monte diced apples & pears in extra light syrup with caramel flavor or diced pears in extra light syrup with vanilla and spice to make them $0.69. I use these for lunches. (Coupon no longer available, but there’s a $1/2 coupon available on Facebook here.)

Annie’s Mac & Cheese is $0.69/box. No coupons used here, but I stocked up anyway. My girls love the pink boxes because the pasta is bunny-shaped.

Cheez-its are $2.49/box, and I had a $1/1 coupon from the coupons.com Savings Club (no longer available).

Pillsbury pie crusts are regular price – $3.19 – but I had apples coming out of my ears and I had to make a pie. There’s a printable coupon here for $0.50/2. I tried the Kroger pie crusts too, since they were $2, and made my husband do a taste test. He said they were both good, but he ended up liking the Pillsbury crust the best, just FYI.

UPDATE: The winners of the free copies of 21 days to a More Disciplined Life from Money Saving Mom are comments #4 Nikki T., #26 Maryann D., #10 Kristy V, #40 Sara F., and #36 Amanda C. Send me an email and I’ll send you the info on how to get your book. For everyone else, don’t forget it’s on sale for $0.99 through tomorrow!

I love Money Saving Mom’s blog. It’s one of my favorites, not just because of the deals she posts, but also because of the great articles she writes. Her books are also fun to read, and she’s just come out with a new one on e-book/Kindle: 21 Days to A More Disciplined Life. It retails for $4.99, but through tomorrow (10/25) it’s on sale for just $0.99 on e-book here or Kindle here. Plus, I have FIVE copies to give away to you all today!

Here’s a description of the book:

Do you have ideas, hopes, and dreams for what you want to accomplish in your life, but you feel like you’re being held back by a lack of personal discipline?
Are you easily overwhelmed by your big ideas or projects, and you just don’t know where to start and how to make real progress? Do you find yourself making “all-or-nothing” plans for transforming your life, and then three days later you crash and burn under the weight of your plan?

What You Can Expect to Learn From This Book:

How to prioritize and name your goals so that you can accomplish them faster than ever.

How to expose the obstacles that will come up, and then make a plan to conquer them.

How to break up a goal that feels insurmountable into bite-sized pieces.

How to stop making excuses and get the job done now — and then enjoy the rest of your day!

How to put accountability in place to help you stay on task and motivated.

Purchasing this ebook also gives you access to printable worksheets to make the process even easier!

I am proud to be a Sustaining Member of the Junior League of Knoxville. I joined the Junior League in 2002, and have thoroughly enjoyed my League experience. One of the fun events I’ve always enjoyed is the annual Tinsel & Treasure Holiday Market. It’s a great place to find unique Christmas gifts!

The 11th Annual Tinsel & Treasure will be held at the Knoxville Convention Center November 2-4. Tickets are $5 ahead of time or $6 at the door. To pre-order tickets call the League office at 865-584-4124 or go here. There’s also a $1 coupon in the Knoxville Schools coupon book, and on Saturday admission is FREE during the UT football game. Shopping hours are as follows:

Friday November 2nd, 10:00 am – 7 pm

Saturday November 3rd, 10:00 am – 6 pm

Sunday November 4th, 12 noon – 5 pm

The Junior League has generously given me two sets of general admission tickets to give away to two readers! Each set contains two tickets to Tinsel & Treasure. I will pick two winners.

Required Entry:

To enter to win, just leave a comment below letting me know if you’ve ever been to Tinsel & Treasure. That’s it! (If you’re reading this on Facebook/Twitter hop on over to thriftychristy.com to leave your comment.)

Additional Optional Entries:

You can do each of the following things for an additional entry in the giveaway. You can only do each of these once, for a possible total of 6 entries.

Please leave a separate comment for each method of entry. If you only leave one comment then you only have one entry, as each comment is numbered and I randomly choose a number. Make sense?

This giveaway ends at 9 p.m. EST on Thursday October 25. I will choose two winners and will post them Thursday night after 9. If you’re not a winner, don’t fret, because a little bird told me there’s an upcoming Deal Chicken deal, too!

I will contact the winner via email. Giveaway open to US readers only. Although if you’re living in a foreign country I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be coming to Tinsel & Treasure, right?

Kroger has a great Buy 5 Save $5 event going on right now, so I thought this might be just the right time to take a college friend of mine, Jamie, on a couponing trip. Jamie is a pretty thrifty girl, but she doesn’t do a lot of couponing. (I was the same way in college.) So off we went to Kroger to see what deals we could find. Of course, the first step for Jamie was to actually sign up for a Kroger Plus card.

To get the $5 Catalina (good on your next purchase) you must purchase 5 participating items. It’s not too hard to do – just verify before you check out that your participating items are in denominations of 5. You can get everything all at once, or break it up into smaller transactions and roll the Catalinas. One of the first deals I though looked good was the Betty Crocker Mac & Cheese. It’s on sale for $1/box, and is part of the Buy 5 Save $5 event, so after Catalina it would be free! Unfortunately, my store only had two boxes left.

I bake a lot, and Gold Medal flour is part of the sale making it $1.50/bag after Catalina, so I bought a bag. The white wheat flour that I’ve started using for almost everything was not part of the sale, so I didn’t really stock up.

Also on the baking aisle we saw that Betty Crocker cake mixes were on sale for $1.25, so just $0.25 after Catalina! The cookie mixes were $1.50/bag after Catalina, and this printable $0.50/1 coupon doubles to make them $0.50/bag. Jamie & I both make a lot of cookies for the youth group at church, so we both bought a number of cookies mixes.

Totally stocked up on baking mixes. This should last me through Christmas:

Other great deals:

Old El Paso tacos and refried beans are $1.25, so $0.25 after Catalina. Plus you can use the $0.60/3 Old El Paso Product found in the 9/9 SS

I recently had the chance to read A Year with G.K.Chesterton, edited by Kevin Belmonte (subtitle: 365 Days of Wisdom, Wit, and Wonder). This nonfiction book was published this October by Thomas Nelson.

About this book (from the back cover):

“A Year with G. K. Chesterton daily brings truth to life. And we are heir to the winsome, arresting, utterly original outpouring of Chesterton’s reasons for hope. During his lifetime, a host of perspectives clamored for his attention, but he saw nothing as vital and alive as Christianity. Readers of this book will find their faith strengthened and enriched, even as they see the many reasons why George Bernard Shaw called Chesterton “a colossal genius.”

A true anthology, the best of Chesterton’s many works are presented in concise, memorable selections. From New Year’s Day to New Year’s Eve, each page contains a passage of Scripture and myriad moments for reflection, appreciation, and laughter.”

This book is organized by date, and for each day you’ll get a verse of Scripture, a paragraph of Chesterton’s insight, and a list of important events (involving Chesterton) that happened on that date. Many -but not all- days also have an additional passage or quote of Chesterton’s or a passage from someone else writing about Chesterton. My husband says that a British Roman Catholic man who lived a hundred years ago might not seem like an obvious reading choice for those of you who are contemporary Protestant Evangelicals, but truly, he is a treasure trove of orthodox belief, wit, and insight.

My only complaint about this book is that I would have liked to see citations from each of Chesterton’s quotes so I would know what work it was taken from; my husband and I both had some initial confusion about whether some of the passages might have been written by the editor, Kevin Belmonte, who is a Chesterton scholar, since they were not attributed, when other passages were listed as quotes from Chesterton. We figured out that everything not attributed to someone else was written by Chesterton, but I wasn’t completely sure at first.

I have not read through all of the 365 daily passages, although I look forward to doing so. However, from the scanning I did, plus the week of daily readings from the past 7 days in October, I can tell this book is going to be a great addition to my daily quiet time. I look forward to getting to know Chesterton better.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Just a reminder that the Blount County Library book sale starts tomorrow! Friends of the Library sponsor the sale & offer first dibs to members only on Thursday from noon to 6 pm. You can purchase a membership at the door. Get there early, as folks line up prior to the doors being opened at noon.

Tim Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan, and I don’t think I’m overstating things when I saw he’s one of the most brilliant minds of our generation. This book is for everyone who is married and everyone who is not. See, you fit into one of those categories, right?